Is it me, or has the definition of a superstrat changed?

Whenever I used to think of a superstrat, I always thought of guitars with a pointed headstock, a Floyd Rose trem, a bridge humbucker, and a downsized Strat-shaped body covered in some kind of crazy paint color. For a while, it seemed like no one would touch them anymore, only searching out vintage Fenders and Les Pauls.

Now, it seems like the definition has evolved to include just about anything Strat shaped, but with upgraded woods (sometimes lots of figuring), high end pickups, etc.

Has anyone else noticed this change in definition? Are superstrats still popular with players out there?

To me it means a humbucker and some kind of locking trem...cosmetics can push it one way or the other...but generally it's those two mods that do it for me...perhaps bigger frets and a flatter board- though I like those changes on my AVRI 57 and 62 strats with three singles and traditional trems.

Suhr, Anderson, Tyler, Jackson and Charvel all do it I guess...even fender right?

i always thought a super strat was a strat that isnt the regular 3 single coil, non vintage style trem, and maybe not the ader or ash body without a top.

I just ordered my suhr and its superish in nature with the standard body, the 2 point trem, locking tuners, bridge humbucker, and special switching with a pushbutton series parallel switch, 1 tone, 1 volume, 5way, compound radius, stainless steel frets.

Thats just customized in my opinion, but its just a strat, ill have a 2nd pickgaurd with the SSS configuration going.

Anything with a different neck wood than maple and rosewood, and a different body wood, like basswood, mahogany, etc. and any top wood is pretty super in my opinion. As well as a HSH configuration or HH configuration, Floyd Rose or similar, and non standard original strat like features. Paintjobs are kind of seccondary, i mean Clapton plays a funky painted strat, and its still a strat, the monterrey pop strat is just a painted strat

To me it means a humbucker and some kind of locking trem...cosmetics can push it one way or the other...but generally it's those two mods that do it for me...perhaps bigger frets and a flatter board- though I like those changes on my AVRI 57 and 62 strats with three singles and traditional trems.

Suhr, Anderson, Tyler, Jackson and Charvel all do it I guess...even fender right?

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Yeah, that is typically my definition also. Think all those hot rod Ibanez RG series in addition to the Jackson/Charvel

I think that the definition has morphed along with the available guitars. I think a hot rod Anderson qualifies. I just don't think an Anderson was very common 20 years ago. To me 24 frets is shredder not superstrat.

Whenever I used to think of a superstrat, I always thought of guitars with a pointed headstock, a Floyd Rose trem, a bridge humbucker, and a downsized Strat-shaped body covered in some kind of crazy paint color. For a while, it seemed like no one would touch them anymore, only searching out vintage Fenders and Les Pauls.

Now, it seems like the definition has evolved to include just about anything Strat shaped, but with upgraded woods (sometimes lots of figuring), high end pickups, etc.

Has anyone else noticed this change in definition? Are superstrats still popular with players out there?

Click to expand...

I Agree,there were not any well known subtle strat variants when i was coming up in the late 70's;there were bad copies but the strat interpretations by Peavey,Yamaha etc were not much competition for vintage strats.With the 80's all kinds of zany guitars were released and the superstrat moniker appeared,mostly for very aggressive 'rock' guitars,some of which(The Phil Collen custom Archtop comes to mind)were exceptional instruments.I think currently 'superstrat' represent instruments that are premium 'customs' basically.Linhof,GVCG,Nash,Callaham,Suhr,CP Thornton-the list goes on & on.The same can be said for amps,pedals,custom cabs,cables,strings-all of the knowledge of 50 years of building has been made available to us